Better quality of life and improved longevity for Boomers is more available than ever before. This trend will continue and accelerate.

This news is especially exciting since lung cancer has been one of the most difficult to diagnose, on average the disease has been growing for seven years before symptoms develop, making treatment difficult at best. Real hope is now on the scene.

According to this article, “[T]he metabolism of lung cancer patients is different than the metabolism of healthy people. The molecules that make up cancer patients’ exhaled breath are different too. A new device pioneered at the University of Colorado Cancer Center and Nobel-Prize-winning Technion University in Haifa, Israel uses gold nanoparticles to trap and define these molecules in exhaled breath. By comparing these molecular signatures to control groups, the device can tell not only if a lung is cancerous, but if the cancer is small-cell or non-small-cell, and adenocarcinoma or squamous cell carcinoma.”

Fred R. Hirsch, MD, PhD, investigator at the CU Cancer Center and professor of medical oncology at the University of Colorado School of Medicine says the device “could totally revolutionize lung cancer screening and diagnosis. The perspective here is the development of a non-traumatic, easy, cheap approach to early detection and differentiation of lung cancer.”

This technology potentially promises:

~ To “tell if the breath came from a cancerous lung.”

~ Assist in “ . . . monitoring how well a patient responds to specific treatments, helping to determine whether a patient should stay with a particular regimen or explore other options.”

~ Eventually to “help doctors quickly, simply, and inexpensively define patients’ lung cancer subtypes, allowing them to pair therapies with subtypes early in the treatment process.”

~ To provide more accurate and less costly screening results.

Restless Boomers believes nanotech to be one of the most promising medical technologies for the Boomer demographic. Diseases and illnesses of all kinds are now being examined through the lens of ‘how can nanotechnology be used’.

Stay tuned for regular updates on the exciting developments in Nanotechnology.